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Email a FriendWe ran the gauntlet last year and will start again in January.
My dd leaves for University of Dallas next Friday. TBH, the experience of researching and applying to schools wasn’t all that bad. It was a spread out process over a couple years and dd only applied to 4 schools, two of which are in our home state. She took the SAT’s a couple of times with plenty of wiggle room, we didn’t do anything last minute, she knew what she wanted and needed through every step. It was fairly painless.
Ds, otoh, will be MUCH more labor intensive. He is applying to all the service academies except for Groton, all the ROTC programs and 5 or so civilian universities. The service academy process runs from Jan of junior year to Dec of senior year. So 2012 will be quite intense.
I figure when we’re done with *that* I’ll be able to handle anything.
Top Catholic Colleges?
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Family on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 10:00 AM
Catholic News Service had an interesting article yesterday extrapolating some data from the recent Forbes’ Top 100 List of Colleges in America. CNS columnist Tony Spence pulled out the Catholic colleges on the list, with the following earning top 100 rankings:
18 — University of Notre Dame, Indiana; $53,239; 11,816
26 — Boston College, Massachusetts; $54,624; 15,036
27 — College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts; $54,432; 2,932
47 — Georgetown University, District of Columbia; $56,485; 16,520
67 — Santa Clara University, California; $53,742; 8,846
84 — St. Norbert College, Wisconsin; $37,392; 2,304
85 — St. Anselm College, New Hampshire; $45,705; 1,915
88 — St. Michael’s College, Vermont; $45,630; 2,466
As the mom of a son who’s been through the college admissions process and another who will run that gauntlet next year, I know that the import of these ranking systems is not really a factor in the final decision making process. I will say that for my son, he did look at rankings in considering colleges, but they weren’t a huge factor when the time came to make a final choice.
I wonder how many of our readers have children who will be in the college app process this year. Have you and your child begun work on the application process or are you still deciding which schools might be a good fit for your student? Do you have any specific questions about the admissions process that we might be able to discuss here at Faith & Family. Between our many readers with older children, we likely have a great “database” of knowledge about universities around the country! And as someone who has successfully survived one round of applications, I’m happy to lend any experiences that might be of help to you and your teens.
If we have “college student moms” out there, I’d love your thoughts on the Forbes list, your tips for the application process, and your “survival suggestions” for launching a teen off to college.
One word of wisdom I’d definitely share is: “Don’t wait”. The earlier you get working on your applications and financial aid forms, the better. Senior year of high school is a busy time socially and academically, so the sooner your teen can begin working on the Common App and other forms, the better. Also, now is the time to approach favorite instructors for letters of recommendation. Some have “first come, first served” policies and you don’t want to be scrambling at the last moment for recommendations.
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My son is entering college as a freshman this September. After attending Catholic schools from nursery school through high school, he will be attending a state university for his college education. As parents who strongly believe in Catholic education, the majority of the schools that we looked at were Catholic universities, but in the end we felt that the Catholic mission of these schools has been diluted in the push to add student enrollment. I was wondering if any one else had the same experience?
I think it depends on the university. There are a handful of Catholic schools out there that have retained their Catholic identity and purpose (see the Newman list). There are also some excellent secular schools, such as Texas A&M, that have large and active Catholic student populations. I’d much rather see my child at a secular school with an orthodox Newman center than a Catholic-in-name-only school.
It certainly isn’t a one size fits all proposition.
My children are very small, but my husband is a high school youth minister, so he’s always attuned to this process. Something he has found to be important when considering a college, whether Catholic or not, is the presence of FOCUS missionaries on campus. They are a great resource to young people!
I like that you have a question mark at the end of your title to this post. Appropriate, in my opinion. If someone asked me what I thought were the “top Catholic colleges,” I don’t think any of those would be on my list. Of course, my criteria are quite different from the criteria of Forbes. Having graduated from one of those schools that was hardly more than Catholic in name only, I would rather see my children at a secular school and getting their spiritual needs met elsewhere, as some of the other comments indicated. I think there’s a real danger in Catholic media (like CNS) even printing this Forbes list and seemingly taking pride in the fact that there are “Catholic” colleges on the list. I think it could confuse orthodox Catholics who aren’t familiar with these colleges.
My oldest daughter started Seattle University last year (and will return this year) after looking almost exclusively at Catholic universities on the West Coast. My first inclination that the college may not be an orthodox Catholic school happened when the financial aid office could not answer my inquiry about the school following the papal magisterium (information we needed to apply for a K of C scholarship). The staff member I with whom I spoke had never heard of it before, but told me that they must since it is a Jesuit school. This last year, however, I discovered through another dad that SU had an internship program through their public administration with a western Washington Planned Parenthood agency. I e-mailed the president, Father Sundborg, but received no reply about my inquiry why a Jesuit school would administer such an internship.
My daughter really enjoys the university and the area and will continue on at SU, but I am still disappointed with the lack of relevant information readily on hand.
My husband and I are somewhat recent college grads (2005 & 2007). He went to catholic school all his life yet my parents weren’t able to afford it. We are both the oldest and have watched our younger siblings struggle to find catholic colleges. Some have gone to catholic school (Franciscan, Ave Maria, and private catholic school, in name only), and although those ‘big name’ catholic schools are great, we both attended Illinois State University, which has an amzing orthodox Catholic Newman Center. It was much more catholic then my sister’s private, expensive ‘catholic’ school, who was run by a group of sisters! :( I would say to look for a Newman Center and/or a school with FOCUS missionaries (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). When you visit the college, GO TO THE CHURCH/NEWMAN CENTER!! Talk to the chaplain (or sisters, or whoever is director), ask to meet current students or recent alumni. You could even call ahead to make sure those people will be there when you are. They are MORE then willing to make sure people are there to talk to you. 
Another big thing to ask about would be how often they have sacraments available (mass, confession, adoration). That will tell you a lot about their Catholic identity. In the Peoria, Illinois diocese alone, there are some absolutely wonderful and faithful public unviersities with great Catholic Newman Centers on campus (ISU, U of I, WIU). Force your child to meet Catholics on campus, and they will thank you later for that blessing! :-D Prayers for you all!
I second the Newman Center recommendation. (We’re U of I alums.) My husband can often look at the pictures of the seminarians (now young priests) and recognize most of them from his time at Newman. Plus, my husband and I (like many other young couples we know) were able to marry and start our family shortly after I graduated because we did not have to take out loans to cover tuition. We’ll be steering our children towards state schools, should they wish to attend college. (And if they don’t, being a tradesman is nothing to look down on.)
Ha, my verification word is “fiscal.”
We are launching our second this weekend, and will put #3 in college next year (we hope!). For our first, it was clear that none of the Catholic colleges were going to work. The ones we wanted, didn’t have what he wanted, and the ones that did, we could not afford. He was particularly discouraged to discover ND does NOT award any merit-based aid…and we are in the unfortunate bubble of making too much to qualify for aid, but not enough to cough up $50K a year. (especially when all the younger sibs are in Catholic schools).
For our second, it was a similar situation; although she would have fit in well at many of the Catholic schools, they would have left her so far in debt, and being as she wants to teach (preferable Catholic elementary), she didn’t want to be in debt the rest of her life. We found the “perfect” fit in a state college, one with a very good Newman Center. And I should also mention that our oldest is very active in his Newman Center as well—different school. Veronica gave great advice on that front above—and I second what she said.
Since we all know each child is different, I expect we may go yet another route with #3. Maybe he will be the one to find a ‘fit’ in a Catholic College, or maybe not. We pray about it, and trust God will lead us both to the school that is right for that child. I also would encourage—let the student do as much of the work as you can! Not only does it “free” you up, but it gets them involved in the decision, the process, and besides, once they are accepted, the schools will need the students’ permission to talk to you anyway. (don’t get me started on that subject).
We have homeschooled our kids from the very beginning. I am a big believer in Community Colleges and state schools. Not a big fan of dept. My oldest graduated from college dept free and then graduated from grad school with a program that she paid minimal in exchange for working for the state for 2 years with a great paying social work job. I find many Catholic Couples postpone children due to college dept and know that some are not be able to enter a religious vocation if they have dept. It is very hard for large families. Something has to change. Definitely fill out the FASFA forms asap after Highschool graduation. We have 3 paying their own way in college this year and many more to come. So glad that our Community College is rated so well.
As an 18-year-old going into college this year (9 days!), I can tell you that none of those school even crossed my mind when I was researching colleges. I was looking for a true, genuine Catholic college. I went through the Newman Guide and compared the “important stuff”- for me, this was cost, size, majors, whether or not daily mass was available, and the “dorm situation” (if they were separated by gender or not.) I narrowed it down, eliminating the $50,000 schools, the ones with co-ed dorms, etc. using a homemade spread sheet and got down to 2, at which point I visited both and made my decision.
I can’t say that I know that none of the listed colleges are truly Catholic, because I don’t know that for sure. But I do know that I didn’t look at rankings at all, and, other than the Newman guide, I didn’t really care what “outside sources” thought of the colleges I was considering. It was just finding the right fit for me, which happened to be a Catholic school- Franciscan University.
You will never regret that decision! I have a daughter at Franciscan University and well…it is like heaven on earth. You can’t beat having Christ live in your dorm! She can go to the tabernacle any time and she does very often. Daily mass, reconciliation, holy “household” sisters…the list goes on and on. Congratulations!
Marie- you know what’s funny? Your daughter and I are rooming right across the hall from each other!
Peggy- Every time I visit, I’m struck by how heaven-like it is there…. having so many opportunities for adoration, mass, and praise and worship is wonderful. I can’t wait!
My son will be a junior at Wabash College in Indiana - I believe it may be the only still all male college in the nation (maybe one other?). It is a small liberal arts college, about 25% of the students are Catholic. They know how to educate men. We have been happy with it, and he loves it. It is very small (just under 1000 students), with lots of historic traditions. They do have a small Newman center - as far as I know, it is run as a club by the student’s themselves with a faculty advisor. Smaller schools are too small to have a FOCUS or permanent campus ministry staff. While it is not Catholic, it is a place where Catholics are respected (the President of the University is Catholic). They have a great career service office and very active alumni who are very helpful in getting the student’s internships. My son has been even more interested in his Catholic faith since he started there after he took a course on the History of Christianity. This summer, he got to go to Kenya for nearly two weeks for “free” as part of an immersion course to study African Christrianity. It is a private college, but there is a lot of merit aid and scholarships available. If anyone checks out the website out, my son is Michael, who is the junior blogger (part of his work study). He applied to several “big” name schools and was accepted, but the financial aid was never quite enough. He will still have some college debt, around $20,000, but he thinks this will be manageable. He did apply and was accepted by several big name schools that were mentioned above, some of them Catholic, but the financial aid packages would have resulted in even more debt. We will be going through this again with my daughter who is a senior, and what I learned from the first experience is that it is OK to have a “parent’s list” of acceptable colleges - especially if you are going to be helping with tuition. I had heard by word of mouth about Wabash and checked out the website before he did - I practically had to kidnap him to get him to even visit the campus for one of the honors days. Then he had several more visits including an overnight visit before he enrolled. We are looking more within our own state this time around too, our daughter will probably apply to six schools ( a mix of private, Catholic, and state university). One practical thing is to set up a separate e-mail account just for college applications, financial aid etc. that both student and parent have access to. This helps especially with the all important financial aid deadlines. I would check out the student newspaper, look around the student union if they have one to see what kind of things are going on at the campus. Steve Wood from Faith and Family radio show has a CD called, “7 Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing a College”. Among other things he talks about debt, Catholic identity, the student handbook (read it), male to female ratio, and vocation. Good luck to all of you and pray for me as we begin the search for my daughter.
No one should write off the private liberal arts Catholic schools because of cost without actually applying and going through the financial aid process. Grants, need based and academic scholarships abound, especially for the student with a good GPA and test scores. I fear too many students and families see the price tag and immediately think, “Forget it. We can’t afford that!” without going through the process and finding out just how much aid they qualify for from the school(s).
Also, get good at soccer:D It seems that most of the Newman schools like to field good soccer teams and are generous with soccer scholarships too. (I’m only half-joking)
We’re launching our 3rd off to college and never considered any of those on that list either. Sadly our eldest is at a private Catholic college that is ‘relatively’ Catholic - good president, daily Mass, etc but the Catholic culture certainly doesn’t permeate dorm life or the social life. And I would have to guess the majority of students are not catholic. I say sadly mostly because he wil have over 50K in debt and is planning to move on to grad school and hope to teach at college level some day.
A couple things I have learned: your financial aid package that is initially offered is not always the ‘final offer’. Ask for a Special Circumstance form (or whatever your college calls it) and include homeschooling or primary tuition costs on it. Our 3rd son’s Pell Grant went up over $1500 after we filled it out and they found him also $2000 more dollars in school based grant money. He didn’t end up going to that school after all but the school he is going too is $48,000 a year and after much haggling and I am sure the assistance of the coach who was trying to recruit him, he is paying about 1/4 of that and living at home.
Be careful of some Neuman Centers! We had a younger priest at one in MN who was very unorthodox! Luckily, there has been a change, but lots of damage. I got my Masters in Theology through the Institute of Pastoral Theology (weekends at various US sites) at Ave Maria University in Florida - an incredible program! Every time my husband and I visit the Ave Maria campus, we save more dollars for our grandchildren to go there! The faculty and the students radiate Christ - worth every dollar! As one Ivy League transfer student told me, “They teach you critical reasoning skills, not just memorizing stuff.” Check out the scholarships and aid.
My husband and I graduated at Texas A&M and our four children have all attended A&M. I have always told parents that if you want your children to learn more about their faith—-attend A&M. The priests, staff and students all do a wonderful job offering fantastic programs for the students to support their spiritual and emotional needs. The students run Sunday School Programs, Retreat Programs, and Knights to name a few. But no matter how wonderful a program is, the college student has free choice to attend and grow in their faith or not to.
I think it’s terrible a mother here recommended “forcing” your kid to go to the Newman center - and another made a spreadsheet and then narrowed it all down to schools and then made “her” choice for her kid.
I also think it’s dangerous when parents walk out of a school calling it “heaven.” There’s no college that is heaven, and I know people from Steubenville who will attest to that fact, even if they did enjoy and value the time they spent there. I know kids from Christendom that party and have sex, as well.
College is a time for you to release your kids to be what they were brought up to be. You don’t need to feed them to the lions, of course. But some parents don’t realize that even where it’s all lambs, there are lions too.
Actually, Charlotte, I am the one who said that I made a spreadsheet and narrowed down options- and I am a student. I say that just for clarification, nothing else. I agree with you that it is sad when parents make all the college decisions for their children, but I am glad that my parents helped me realize what the best college was for me- they did not decide for me, though. I also agree that no school is heaven. Not one single school, whether it be elementary, high school, or college, is perfect, but I do think that a school can be “heaven-like”- that is, remind a person of heaven. And, for me, that’s what Steubenville does.
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